The Let's Play Archive

Part 121: Episode CXIV: Ending C - "Thank You"

Episode CXIV: Ending C - "Thank You"

"Well, hell, Sunshine, it's not like I can stop it! When Gestalts go out of control, they lose their minds! Your memory and mine will be completely overwritten! "H-hurry... " "Kainé!" "Run... RUN! Ngh...ngh..."

For this opening part of the battle, you've basically just got to avoid a massive bullet hell cyclone from Kainé. Her bullets hurt a lot. It was probably a bad idea to play this section several drinks in and half asleep...

"No! I won't do that." (...Run... You defeated the Shadowlord.... You rescued Yonah... But now I can't... I can't...) "We didn't come here to watch each other die! You taught me something, Kainé. You taught me that a man must be strong to protect those he loves. Believe in me, Kainé! I'm going to save you. I SWEAR IT!"

"Weeeell, there might be one way to save her..." "Who said that?" "It don't matter, so don't ask! Just shut up and listen." "Wait, are you-"

"There's a way to save Kainé's life. All right? But you're gonna have to make a difficult decision." "I'll do whatever it takes." "When the time comes, I'm going to pin Kainé down. And as soon as I do, you need to stab her in the heart." "No! I can't!" "Fine! Don't believe me. Stand around with your thumb up your ass and watch her die a terrible death." "...You want me to believe you?"

Alright, we've got to take down Kainé now before Tyrann tells us the rest of his little plan. Kainé mostly just tries to run over and kick the shit out of Nier with melee attacks. Pretty much all of Shade Kainé's attacks hurt like hell, even to our Level 39 Nier. So, it's best to keep on the move at all times.

Seriously, look at the size of that sword! It's as big as a friggin' canoe.

Anyway, Kainé can and will block any attacks from the front if she's just running after Nier. You've got to get her when she's doing a strike of her own, or jump to the side to avoid her shield.

Kainé can also crap out a bullet storm at will while running laps around the room. Thankfully, that's pretty rare. If she just kept up with that bullet hell business in the first leg of the fight, this battle would have been a lot harder. God help you if you play the game on Hard. Kainé can push Nier's shit in with just a couple of those energy balls.

Our relapsing friend can also do all sorts of charging attacks across the room. But, they're all pretty easy to avoid if Nier just keeps on the move at all times. At least that homing laser beam attack she loves so much in her normal form didn't carry over to her new look.

After taking enough of a beating, Kainé collapse to the floor. Endings C and D are identical up until around this point. You see, there's a pretty big decision to be made here which determines what ending we'll receive. But, let's just see how this pans out, mmm?

"Very nice... Now, if you want to save your precious Kainé..."

"There are two ways to do it. One is to plunge your sword into her chest. That's what she wants, after all. Freedom from burdens. Freedom from life."

"What's the other way?" "The other way...is to make her a normal human being again."

"But to make that happen, you gotta trade your own existence for hers..."

"Well, there you go! Good luck with that." "You're the Shade inside Kainé. Why are you trying to help her?"

"Probably for the same reason you are. Enough talk. Make your choice."

Welp, like Tyrann said we can either mercy kill Kainé or Nier can sacrifice himself to save her life. And that would be Ending C and D respectively.

For umm...reasons that will become more readily apparent in the final ending, I'll be choosing our path of Ending C for today. Sorry Kainé...

"Kainé..."

Nier and Kainé share a kiss as her body burns away into nothing.

Nier drops his sword and falls to his knees...

"Kainé, let's go home."

"Can you hear me?"

"I spent yeeeears inside Kainé's body. Tormenting her from within. I felt her pain, her emotions, as if they were my own. And there was so much pain... So when I say she's free now, I want you to believe me. Thanks to you, Kainé has been forgiven. And saved. Oh, wait. She had a final message for ya..."

And that was the penultimate ending of NIER... We've come a long way, haven't we? 115 updates...that's kinda a lot... Geez, what am I gonna do with myself after this...? Ah well... See ya next time for something very special...